-Livemint.com The institutional bias against Muslims in our police force needs to be corrected urgently. Police personnel must be made to undergo sensitization courses A sample survey of attitudes does not offer an accurate map of anyone’s mind. Yet, responses to questions do point to people’s underlying motivations, biases, beliefs and justifications for these. According to a recent survey, every second policeman believes that Indian Muslims are “naturally prone" to crime. Perhaps...

-The Hindu The national bar against hate crime has been lowered, but resolute corrective action is possible Once again, the first weeks of the Narendra Modi administration have been marked by hate crimes — two Muslim men beaten by mobs in Jharkhand and Mumbai, demanding they shout ‘Jai Shri Ram’, one so mercilessly that he died. Another man, a tribal, lynched in Tripura on suspicion of being a cattle thief. Most recently,...

-The Hindu The National Crime Records Bureau must be more prompt and open in releasing data Indian prisons make news when there is a jail break, a prison riot or when the lawyers of high-profile businessmen or economic evaders fight against their extradition to India. And in the midst of the election process this year, the release of the data-driven report, the Prison Statistics India 2016, published by the National Crime Records...

-Livemint.com India is increasingly jailing its young for online posts that ‘offend’ politicians. The impact on their lives and families is devastating Initially, they all thought it was a joke when the police turned up. Once the prison gates opened, reality sunk in. Entering the dark, stinking cells, filled with dangerous looking strangers, they all felt a mix of emotions. There was of course incomprehension, fear, and an unexplainable feeling of guilt...

-Scroll.in The India Spend initiative has found as many as 90% of religious hate crimes since 2009 have occurred after the BJP took power at the Centre in 2014. The election results in Brazil last month came as another troubling reminder of the direction in which an increasing number of countries are careening. In nation after nation, a growing number of people are voting for leaders who stoke hatred against minorities and...